By "hitting AWS" I mean it passes through AWS infrastructure. There's no way for it to hit DDG without passing through AWS. DDG doesn't pass your IP...your computer does. Here's an exercise:

With firebug active in FF put "https://duckduckgo.com/?q=bob+dylan" in the browser's address. In the "Net" tab in firebug the very first entry will be "GET ?q=bob+dylan". Copy the remote IP and go to "http://itools.com/tool/arin-whois-domain..." and enter that IP address. See? Amazon's name is there (and not DDG's) and Amazon own that IP address. You just sent a query to Amazon's computers and Amazon logs your IP Address & search terms, etc.